


A Touch of Lightning

by SereneCalamity



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments (Movies), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, M/M, Spark/Warlock, Teen Wolf inspired, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-20 05:53:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 21,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13711236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SereneCalamity/pseuds/SereneCalamity
Summary: When Jace's pack encounters an enemy they don't understand, they are forced to call in help from a powerful Spark who seems to know a lot more than what she's saying. Clace. Werewolf/Spark AU.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Another werewolf AU because I'm obsessed with them .  
> Disclaimer: I do not own the characters.

"What the fuck is going on?!" Jace Herondale snapped as he felt another uncomfortable rush of wind and an unfamiliar werewolf's scent nearby, but it had disappeared into the darkness of the forest by the time he turned around. He could feel Alec Lightwood's presence at his back, which was the only comforting thing that was going on right now.

"It's an Alpha," Alec growled, his face ridged, his eyes glowing beta-gold, his fangs dropped and making his words slightly lisped.

"I got that much," Jace swung around again as he caught the scent again and saw another flash of red eyes, this time a little closer, and he was pretty sure that he heard a laugh, but he couldn't be sure. He curled his fingers into fists, his claws digging into the palms of his hand, drawing blood and dripping onto the broken branches, scattered leaves and damp mud beneath his feet. Suddenly, he lifted his head, hearing a familiar heart beat nearby, and panting, and a panicked scent. "This way," Jace hissed over his shoulder, already taking off at a run, Alec close behind, able to hear the same thing. There was a howl, one of pain, and Jace began running faster, feeling desperate.

It was almost pitch black, just after two in the morning, and the canopy layer of branches blocking out almost all of the glow from the moon and the stars. Both Jace and Alec could see perfectly, though, their eyes glowing, their werewolf senses giving them the advantage as an apex predator. They were moving so fast, any human who was watching them would just see a blur and feel a rush of air, their brains having no idea how to process what their eyes were seeing.

The howl came again, strung out and urgent, and Jace changed his direction slightly, finally able to pinpoint where the sound was coming from. The howl made something deep inside him vibrate, telling him that someone in his pack was in pain, someone in his pack needed him, and with a final leap, he cleared a small creek and came out into a clearing, the smell of blood washing over him.

"Izzy!" Alec cried out as they rushed over to Isabelle Lightwood, who was lying on the ground, wincing and holding her hand to her neck. Maia Roberts was next to her, her eyes glowing gold and panicked as she whipped her head from side to side, watching the tree line, as though waiting for someone to come back. Jace could hear her heart beat thumping so hard in her chest that if she was human, Jace would be worried about her giving herself a heart attack. Alec looked down at Isabelle's leg, which appeared to be broken in more place than one, and there was a gash on her neck. The leg would start healing soon, that was no problem, although it would be uncomfortable for a little bit.

The slash on the side of her neck, though—skin started knitting itself back together a lot faster than bone, and it should already be healing. Jace frowned when he realized that it was still opening and bleeding steadily.

"We need to get her out of here," Jace murmured.

"I've got her," Alec said, picking up his sister bridal style and standing up easily, her weight no problem for him. Maia was vibrating next to them, her breathing coming out shaky and harsh, and Jace reached over to put his hand on the back of her neck, squeezing just slightly to reassure her, and she visibly relaxed at the touch of her Alpha.

"What's happening?" Maia asked, her eyes still darting around the clearing.

"It's an Alpha," Alec informed both her and his sister, his voice low, tightening his grip on Isabelle.

"He didn't seem like an Alpha," Isabelle grunted out, clenching her teeth together and lifting on hand to swipe it through her hair which was hanging in ragged clumps around her face.

"His eyes were red," Maia muttered. "But there was _something_ about him...He didn't smell right."

"I don't give a shit what he smelt like," Jace growled. "We just need to get out of here. We need to regroup." He tipped his head back, his fangs protruding again as he let out a howl, one that shook the trees closest to them, and birds let out squawks and flew out of the trees, away from the group of werewolves. "Where are the others? I told you not to split up."

"It wasn't our fault," Maia protested, sounding more indignant now than scared.

"Fucking aye!" Isabelle added, her voice a little weak but still annoyed.

"We'll talk about this later," Jace cut off any arguments from the girls as he held up a hand, indicating that everyone hold their tongue. He couldn't hear his other beta's, and that worried him. Not being within hearing distance meant that they were pretty damn far away, and for them not to be respond to their Alpha's call meant they were in trouble. They weren't even meant to be out here tonight; it was a complete fluke that this was all happening, that was what worried Jace more. The fact that they had no idea what they were dealing with, that they had never even _smelt_ another Alpha in their territory, or the fact that maybe if they hadn't been here at a time when they weren't meant to be, they might never have found out.

But Aline Penhallow had told them he felt as though that's where they needed to be, and so the pack had all headed out to the woods that surrounded the township. She couldn't explain these senses that she got sometimes, and it was only recently that they had discovered she was a banshee, and were still trying to hone her skills. However, she was generally right when she got a feeling of where they needed to be, so they had gone.

And now they were in the woods, Isabelle was injured, the rest of his pack was scattered and there was an Alpha who appeared to be intent on doing more harm to them.

"Get them out of here," Jace told Alec. "I'll find the others."

"I'm fine, I'll come with you," Maia began.

"No," he snapped at her. "I want you to go with them." Maia looked like she wanted to disagree, but Jace just flashed his eyes at her before taking off into the woods in the direction that Isabelle and Maia had been running in. He picked up on the scent of Jem Carstairs and was about to change his direction when the hair on the back of his neck prickled and he knew that there was someone directly behind him. Jace side stepped and only just missed having a fist smack the back of his head. Jace whipped to the side, spinning around and coming face to face with the Alpha for the first time.

He had dark hair, with streaks of grey, and there was a strange scar on the right side of his neck, curving up toward his face. His eyes were blood red and his fangs were dropped, a throaty growl in his chest. Jace's eyebrows pulled together, furious as he smelt a hint of Isabelle coming from the man, undoubtedly from where he had slashed at her throat.

"Was that your pretty beta back there?" The Alpha teased, speaking through his fangs, his lips curled back in an ugly, cruel sneer. "It was a good thing I didn't really want to hurt her, or else those scratches would have been a whole lot worse."

"This is not your territory," Jace fought to keep his voice even, knowing that if he let his anger take over it was going to blind him and he wasn't going to get answers. "You attacked my beta without any cause, you know I can't just let that go," he flexed his fingers, his claws itching to lunge forward and sink them into the mans skull, feel the bone collapse underneath his palms. The smell of Isabelle's blood on this strange Alpha's hands was making his senses go haywire, just wanting to kill the man who had hurt a member of his pack. He had never fought an Alpha before, but his instincts were driving him forward, telling him to attack.

"I really don't think you're going to do all that much about it, to be totally honest," the Alpha was smirking at him through his fangs, completely unworried.

"Oh yeah?" Jace stepped forward, his eyes flickering over the Alpha's face, the scar on his neck looking a whole lot more red than it had just a few seconds ago. He frowned, wondering what was happening, and that moment of hesitation cost him because the Alpha surged toward him. Jace was caught off guard for a split second, and that was enough for the other Alpha to gain an advantage and send him flying backwards. Jace let out a roar as he smacked against a tree, his head crunching against the trunk before he fell to the ground. He could feel blood dripping down, underneath the collar of his shirt, and he shook his head, feeling his body instantly beginning to heal as he stood back up.

"Come on," the Alpha taunted, and Jace charged. The two men met in the middle, both of their solid bodies slamming together. Jace slashed out with his clawed hands but the other Alpha ducked away, kicking out his leg and catching the back of Jace's knee, sending the golden haired man buckling forward before he caught himself. The whole thing was a blur of movement, the sickening snap of bone ringing out as Jace grasped the Alpha's arm and threw it backwards.

It took longer than Jace would have liked, but nowhere near as long as it should when fighting another Alpha, and he realized what Maia had meant. The man was clearly an Alpha, but there was something off about him. While he had never been injured from an Alpha, he had heard that it could take days for a wound from one to heal, even as an Alpha himself, drawing on the strength from the rest of his pack, but so far he was feeling confident in his ability not to get hurt.

Jace had him on the ground, one of his knees pressing into his bicep, the other knee balancing himself on the other side of the Alpha's torso, and his claws were poised over his throat. He wasn't prepared to deliver the final blow, to kill this Alpha, but he was threatening to lash out in order to make him freeze and stop fighting back.

"I'm going to do to you exactly what you did to Isabelle," Jace growled down at the man, leaning in close to his face, letting his eyes burn viciously at him. This Alpha might have been older, but from the way his eyes were dimming, it was clear that his will was nowhere near as strong as Jace's. "And then you're going to get the fuck out of my territory, and I never want to catch your scent around here again." The Alpha didn't say anything, but suddenly the circular scar on his neck was even brighter—practically glowing red—and Jace was caught off guard. He blinked, and was about to lash his claws out at the Alpha's throat, planning on scratching him up like he had done to Isabelle when he felt a piercing pain in his shoulder. He twisted his body to the side, letting out a yowl of pain as he rolled away from the Alpha and reached over his shoulder, scrabbling for the source of the burn.

It was a knife, buried behind his shoulder, and made of silver if the burn that was spreading over his back. He pulled it out, feeling the burn on his palm as he dropped it the ground. The other Alpha rolled away from him and Jace tried to search for who had thrown the knife, and he caught a glimpse of someone in the trees and he caught a whiff of something bitter and angry but then there were claws buried in his side, tearing through his flesh.

Jace let out another roar, the pain burning through his veins as the Alpha dragged his claws down his side, before his vision started blurring at the corners.


	2. Chapter 2

He was only out for about a minute, but that was enough time for the Alpha and whoever had distracted him to disappear like smoke into the night. Jace let out a groan, feeling his body try to fight against the gashes in his side, but he knew that they weren't going to heal, at least not straight away, not like the other breaks and bruises that he had right now. The pain was radiating through his body, and Jace drew in a couple of angry breaths through his teeth before forcing himself to his feet.

He almost blacked out again from the pain, and the only thing keeping him on his feet was drawing on every shred of will power left in his bones.

Jace's body twitched as he heard two people, rapidly approaching, and he flinched as he heard them only several hundred metres away. But then he let out a sigh of relief, recognizing the scents and familiar heart beats of his pack.

"Jace!" Max Lightwood shouted out as he reached Jace first, his eyes glowing and his fangs bared as he looked around, trying to find who had attacked their Alpha. He was the youngest in the pack, and Jace was glad that he wasn't hurt, because the protective instinct that they all felt toward him would probably have driven all the were's after whoever had done this relentlessly.

"They're gone," Jace wheezed, every breath he was taking in making his body chest ache. The claw marks were mainly up his side, but one of the outer gashes stretched towards his chest.

"Shit," Jem breathed as he reached out and wrapped an arm around his Alpha, grabbing Jace's arm to brace it around his shoulder and helping to take his weight. "Let me take your pain," Jem murmured, the hand that was around Jace's waist tightening, flattening out his palm against Jace's side but purposefully not drawing any of the pain until he got permission. Jace looked as though he was going to refuse, but as he took a step forward, another shot of searing pain shot through him and he sighed, and nodded. Jem looked relieved, hating to see anyone in pain and especially his Alpha, and slid his hand underneath Jace's shirt, touching the skin of his side.

"Jace!" Will Herondale, Jace's cousin, skidded into the clearing. "You look like shit," Will attempted a smile but there was worry in his eyes as he looked down to where Jem was drawing out Jace's pain. Jem's veins were black as they pulled out as much pain as he could. Jace felt his mind going heavy as the pain dulled to a manageable ache and he grunted at the back of his throat.

"That's enough," Jace stated, even though he knew that the pain would almost completely go away if he let Jem go for just a little bit longer. But the more the pain dulled, the less focused his mind would be, and he still wasn't one hundred percent certain that the Alpha and their companion was gone for good.

"Why aren't they healing?" Jem chewed down on his lower lip worriedly as he looked down at the gashes.

"It was an Alpha," Jace replied through gritted teeth, flicking his head backwards to throw his hair out of his eyes. "I think they're gone. We need to get back to the cars—the others are already there."

"I can smell Izzy's blood," Max suddenly snapped from where he was still sniffing around where Jace and the Alpha had been fighting, the ground all scuffed and marked up. "Is she okay?"

"He didn't get her deep," Jace assured him, although the mention that another member of their pack had been hurt had the three beta's looking horrified and even more on edge. "Alec and Maia are with her now, they're back at the cars."

"Can you walk?" Will looked him up and down hesitantly.

"I'll be fine," Jace retorted, trying to pull away from Jem to stand by himself, but the pain shot back through him. Jem rolled his eyes and put his arm around Jace's middle, forcing Jace to put his arm back around Jem's shoulders. "Okay; Will, Max, you go ahead. We'll catch up." Max nodded and immediately took off into the night toward where their cars were parked on the edge of the woods. Will hung back, though, his eyes looking between Jace and Jem.

"I think it'd be best if I stay back with you two in case he comes back," Will murmured, taking up a place at Jace's other side. Usually Jace would get annoyed at his beta for not listening to him, but he knew that Will was just looking out for them, and so he let it go. The blood at the back of his head was still damp, but the wound itself was almost all healed, and the sprain of his ankle was gone now. The slashes on his side, however, were going to be a completely other story.

* * *

"You really need to stop showing up here like this," Lydia Branwell sighed as she opened the back door to her home and saw the werewolves gathered there on the doorstep. Her narrow eyes looked over them, noting the way blood was dripping down Isabelle's neck and Jace's usually stoic expression was etched with pain. She sighed again, but she stepped aside, letting them into the house. "I'll wake up Charlotte," she said as she closed the door behind them and walked through the hallway toward the stairs that went up to the second floor.

"Into the kitchen," Alec lead the way into the kitchen, which was a very familiar place for the were's. Jace sat down at the head of the table, trying to keep his face from showing the pain he was feeling. He was more than used to getting slashed by claws when they were all training together, or breaking bones, but they all started healing straight away, and it was a pain that he could ignore. This was different, though, because it had been over half an hour and the gashes in his side were still deep and bleeding, the redness seeping through his shirt.

"You get blood on my floors and you'll be cleaning it up with a tooth brush," Charlotte Branwell grumbled as she came into the kitchen, her eyes widening as she saw Jace sitting. Usually when they came over here, he was standing, most of the time in the doorway, keeping his eyes on the exit. She looked down at his ruined shirt and she pursed her lips together. "Take the shirt off," she said, her voice becoming clipped as she noticed Isabelle as well. "Lydia, I need you to get the first aid kit and also my herb kit. Alec, go and get towels. The rest of you need to back away." The were's didn't look particularly happy about stepping away from their Alpha and the injured beta, but they obeyed the older woman.

"You need to get your own emissary," Lydia snapped at them before turning on her heel and leaving the kitchen.

"Always lovely to see her," Maia said wryly, crossing her arms over chest. Charlotte shot a glare over at Maia, and the dark skinned girl pressed her lips together to keep from saying anything else. Lydia came back a few moments later, Alec close behind her, both of them carrying the items that Charlotte had asked for. Despite Lydia's annoyed tone and sharp words, her eyes were concerned as she looked at the wounds on Jace's side.

"I can do Isabelle," Lydia murmured quietly as she motioned for Isabelle to sit on the table in front of her.

"Do what?" Isabelle narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"Your wounds aren't healing," Lydia snipped. "You want me to stitch them up, or you want to slowly bleed out?" Isabelle was still glaring but she let Lydia thread a needle and begin to patch her together. Charlotte was murmuring something under her breath, pulling things out of the wooden box that she kept her herbs and potions in. Charlotte was a Spark, a practicer of magic, although she had purposefully let her talents fade over the years, choosing not to become too involved when it came to the supernatural. Sometimes it was hard to avoid, however, especially when the wolf pack in town didn't have an emissary to help them in times like this.

"Lydia is correct," Charlotte murmured as she touched the outside of Jace's wound, ignoring it when he hissed. "You need your own emissary. Someone within your pack who is connected to all of you, who is stronger than me and can heal and help you—"

"I know what an emissary is, Charlotte," Jace snapped, his temper fraying. "Right now, I just want you to do what you can so that we can go home and figure out what the fuck is going on." Charlotte tutted under her breath but didn't say anything else. The were's in the room were on edge, and both Alec and Max rushed forward once Lydia had finished stitching up Isabelle's neck. The wound wasn't much more than a deep scratch, but given it wasn't healing it had still been bleeding steadily, and there was blood staining the collar of her shirt and drying tackily on her skin.

"Did you recognize the Alpha?" Charlotte asked as she began to smear a mixture of strange smelling around the edges of the wound and then indicating for Lydia to thread a new needle. Lydia washed her hands, before handing Charlotte the fresh needle and her grandmother began to stitch Jace's wound. Jace gritted his teeth together as he felt the tug of her tightening the stitches, his three gashes taking longer than Isabelle's scratch.

"No," he answered Charlotte. "Didn't recognize either of their scents."

"There was a second person?" Charlotte asked.

"Threw a silver knife," Will stated, stepping forward and showing the bloody silver knife that he was carrying, wrapped in his jersey on the way over so that he didn't touch it. It looked unassuming enough, not too long, but the blade was long and sharp and the instant it was on display to all of the were's, they scented something that they had missed in the woods.

Wolfsbane.

It had been dipped in wolfsbane, making it even more lethal than just silver. No wonder it had stung more than usual.

"Well, they definitely intended to hurt you," Charlotte said primly.

"Did you notice that weird thing on his neck?" Jace asked, looking over at Isabelle and Maia.

"Yeah, that circle thing?" Isabelle scrunched up her nose before letting out a tired sigh and resting her head against Alec's shoulder. "It looked like some weird scar, right?"

"And it kind of glowed," Jace continued although Isabelle just shrugged and Maia didn't look like she knew what he was talking about. "It went kind of red at one point, it was weird." Jace looked down at Charlotte, who had stopped stitching and was now staring at him.

"You say it was a circle?" She asked, her voice suddenly a deeper tone and a wave of nervousness coming off her, every single werewolf in the room able to sense her unease.

"Charlotte?" The word was clipped as Lydia stepped forward, seeming to understand what was making her grandmother panic. "Are you thinking—"

"You need to call Clarissa," Charlotte replied shortly. "Call her and tell her that she needs to get out here." Lydia nodded, already leaving the room and Jace frowned down at the older woman, who was working on the third gash in his side.

"Who's Clarissa?" Alec asked gruffly, voicing the question that everyone was wondering.

"She's a Spark," Charlotte answered. "She's a whole lot stronger than me, and you're going to need her if this is who I think it is."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Pride Month, ya'll!

Jace didn't like this at all.

Not only was there a Spark coming into his home that he had never met before, he was also injured and not in prime condition. That meant if something went wrong, he wouldn't be in the best position to defend himself and his pack. Not that he thought he wouldn't be able to take on the woman, she might be a Spark, but she was still breakable, although from the way that Charlotte spoke about her made him a little nervous. Charlotte wasn't a particularly powerful emissary, she hadn't practiced in a long time, but even being around her made Jace's senses prickle and his fangs tingle inside his gums. Now they were calling in a woman that was apparently so powerful that Charlotte sounded almost in awe of?

No, Jace didn't like this one bit.

He winced as he looked at his reflection in the mirror, peeling back the bandages to look at the gashes underneath which were definitely healing, but still deep and nasty looking. He didn't ever remember seeing his body looking like this, and he clenched his jaw, letting out a hiss through his teeth. The three, deep claw marks in his side were practically screaming out how weak he was and he covered them up again, pressing the tape of the bandage back against his skin.

Jace walked out of the bathroom and into the spare room where his home gym was. He had been awake for almost forty-eight hours, but this Spark was meant to be arriving in the next hour or so, and he wasn't going to meet this woman for the first time wounded and sleeping, so he was just going to push through. She was flying in, apparently had something that she had to finish up when Lydia had called her, but said she would be on a flight the next morning. The pack had been nervous, and had wanted to come back to his loft with him, but he had convinced them to go home, knowing they would go together at least in pairs.

His pack had been pretty adamant about staying in his apartment, surrounding him and also surrounding themselves with his scent. But after one night of all of them fawning over him and climbing into his bed, the were's all anxious about their hurt Alpha, he had kicked them out, telling them to come back the next morning.

Jace curled his arms up around the bar that was braced in his bedroom door frame and began pulling himself upward. He was several hundred pull ups in, ignoring the twinges of pain in his torso emanating from the gashes, when a strange smell infiltrated his senses. It was the sizzling smell of electricity, slightly bitter but not unpleasant, like the way the air smelt after a storm with pouring rain and bolts of lightening—fresh and sharp. He frowned, trying to place the smell, feeling like it was something that he had smelt before, and he let his feet fall back on the floor, lifting his nose and following the smell. But it wasn't until he heard movement in his kitchen that he realized that smell was actually _a person_.

"What the fuck—" Jace gasped out as he sped forward, appearing in the kitchen and seeing someone looking inside his fridge, apparently not caring _at all_ that they had just walked into his loft completely uninvited and invaded his space.

"You really need to do some shopping," the woman stated, the top half of her body still hidden from him behind the fridge door. She was wearing a pair of denim cut off shorts which showed off her tanned legs and then her feet were tucked into a pair of purple Chuck Taylor converses. "Seriously; do you just live on a diet of pepsi, ailoi and moldy capsicum? And pepsi?! What the hell—you're not even drinking coke?! You're drinking _pepsi_?! That's just nasty." Up until this point, Jace had been frozen in his spot, completely caught off guard by this person who didn't seem to care at all that she was intruding on an Alpha's territory. But he finally managed to get back in control of himself and he lashed forward, slamming his palm flat against the door of the fridge and slamming it shut, the woman skipping a few step backwards with a smirk, as though she had expected that reaction.

"What the fuck are you doing here? And who the fuck are you?" He demanded, letting his eyes glow red and he knew that his fangs were itching to drop from his gums, usual intimidation tactics when it came to someone not giving him the respect he deserved.

"Ooh, we're doing the whole eyes thing, are we?" The woman—actually, maybe more like a girl. She had to be younger than him, with her big, green eyes and red hair bouncing around her face, and there were a couple of freckles sprinkling over her nose. "I can do that to," she snarked back lightly and her eyes suddenly glowed a bright purple, making Jace jerk backwards, his claws pressing through his nail beds. "Look, I was told that you were expecting me? Char rang me?" Jace frowned at her and was about to open his mouth to respond when he heard someone quickly approaching, this person's scent and sound completely obvious, unlike the red head.

"Hello?" Came a man's voice, whoever it was actually pausing on the other side of his front door and knocking, like a normal visitor was supposed to do.

"Who's that?" Jace growled.

"That's Simon. He's kind of like my side kick," she grinned at him, walking past him, toward the front door. Their arms bumped together and there was something that felt like a spark of electricity between them, and Jace practically jumped backwards to get away from her. She didn't appear bothered at all as she opened the front door wide and grinned at the person on the other side. "What took you so long?"

"Well, not all of us have your super magic map thing in our heads," Simon Lewis replied with a roll of his eyes as he stepped past the woman and into the loft. Jace was shocked into silence again as Simon walked in in a similar way to the red head, as though he had a right to be there, although he wasn't quite as confident as her. He gave Jace a nervous half smile and pushed his glasses further up his nose, nearly tripping over his feet and almost sending the laptop in his arms flying across the floor.

"Okay," Jace let out a hiss through clenched teeth and then breathed in heavily through his nose. His hands were curled into fists at his sides as he tried to keep his temper under control, because if he sent either of these people flying through the windows on the other side of the room, that would cause a whole lot of unnecessary mess. "Are you the Spark that Charlotte Branwell called?"

"Wait, you just let yourself in without telling him who you are?" Simon frowned over at the girl. "That's rude." Jace might actually like this kid, but then Simon was shrugging and sitting down on the sofa, making himself comfortable and dragging the coffee table closer to him. So scratch that last thought, he wasn't going to end up liking Simon, because he had been in the loft all of one minute and was already reorganizing the furniture.

"I'm Clarissa," the girl finally decided it was time to introduce herself, walking over to where Jace was standing. "Clarissa Fray," she paused after she finished her name, looking at him with slightly narrowed eyes as though expecting something, but Jace didn't know what she was waiting for, so he just remained silent. She shrugged and continued. "Char said that you needed my help, and given she even said 'please' on the phone, we assumed that it was urgent and that's why we're here so quickly."

"Right," Jace gave a short nod of his head. Yes, so she was definitely a Spark, which he had pretty much assumed when she had flashed her purple eyes at him.

"You can call me Clary, though, since we're going to be working so closely together," she gave a quirk of her lips and Jace didn't miss the way her eyes traveled downward, over his toned torso and then met his eyes, grinning again. Jace couldn't help but scent the air, trying to pick up on any chemosignal that she might be giving out to try and get a read on her, but there was nothing. He could smell that sharp, fresh scent of lightning and citrus and something else that made his heart thump faster. "What's going on here?" She jabbed a finger at the bandage on his side. "Why aren't you healing?"

"It was another Alpha," Jace answered shortly.

"I was brought out here because you're having problems with another Alpha?" Clary didn't look at all impressed and glanced over at Simon. "How much did the plane tickets cost us, Si?"

"Five hundred," he answered. "It'll be about the same for the return flight."

"Book that flight back, see if we can get something out tonight, then I'll be able to make my date on Friday night," Clary told him and made a move to leave through the front door. The complete lack of interest caught Jace off guard, given how sure Charlotte had been that the Spark would want to be involved in this case. "Why the fuck did she even call us? She knows I can't be here," Clary grumbled as Simon tapped away on his laptop.

"She said that you knew who it was," Jace called out, suddenly feeling anxious at the idea of Clary leaving so quickly. He told himself it was because just the other day he had watched his pack being torn about without knowing what to do to protect themselves. It was because he needed to protect them, and Charlotte seemed to think that this girl was their best chance.

"I know a lot of people," Clary sung out in a frankly infuriating manner. "That doesn't narrow it down."

"Well, I don't really know anything more than that!" Jace snapped at her. Clary looked up at him, and then across at Simon, who wasn't paying any attention to the two, his fingers still tapping away on the keyboard. She seemed to be considering something, before she finally sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

"Okay, Si? Hold off on booking the tickets. We'll go and talk to Char and then we'll decide." Simon nodded and stopped looking on the flight website. "It better be a whole lot more exciting than just some Alpha you got into a sniffing match with." Jace felt his body prickling at the insult, but she just smiled sweetly at him. "You gonna put a shirt on, pretty boy? Or is that the way you walk around normally?" Jace glared at her before walking from the room, down to his bedroom. The pull ups he had been doing earlier had barely broken a sweat, so after putting on some deodorant and throwing on a short sleeve shirt from his drawer and pulled it on. When he came back out into the lounge, he couldn't stop his nose from curling in distaste at the different scents in the room.

Usually it just smelt like himself and his pack, no one else was ever allowed in his space.

Now, it smelt vaguely of blood from his wounds, whatever electric scent was running through Clary's veins and nervousness from the bespectacled boy on the couch.

"Come on," he grunted. "I'll drive."


	4. Chapter 4

"Clary!" Lydia let out a squeal when she opened the door, where Jace, Clary and Simon were standing on the front door step. "Oh my god!" Jace blinked as he saw the blonde wrap her arms around the red head. Jace screwed up his nose as he saw the two girls hugging tightly, and gave a side look toward Simon, who didn't look at all surprised by the interaction.

"Right, so you all know each other," he muttered. Lydia's expression shifted suddenly, shooting him a glare, before smiling widely at Simon.

"You're looking good, Si," she cooed as she let go of Clary and the Spark disappeared into the house. "You been bulking up?" Jace rolled his eyes as Lydia hugged the boy, leaving Jace standing there awkwardly.

"Yeah, well, you kind of have to start going to the gym and taking self defense classes when you're hanging around with Clary," Simon grinned. "Do you have any idea of how many times I've nearly died since being around her?" Lydia just laughed again and then the two of them were heading inside, and Jace followed after them, apparently forgotten. As they walked down the hallway, toward the lounge, Jace heard Charlotte exclaiming,

"Clarissa! Darling, it's been far too long!" When they rounded the corner into the lounge, Charlotte was actually _smiling_ , which was something he hadn't seen in the past six years that he had known her. Jace had no idea what was going on right now—it seemed like some big family reunion that he wasn't apart of—and was about to leave the room to wait outside for his pack to arrive when he smelt a sudden rush of magic, and a portal opened up beside him.

"Magnus!" Clary cried as the handsome Indonesian man stepped into the room with a wide smile on his face, wearing his signature smirk that was almost identical to the confident red heads expression. There was then _another_ round of hugs, and Jace's eyebrows lifted toward his hair line.

"Magnus," he noted, his voice clipped.

"Herondale," Magnus nodded shortly at him before looking back toward Simon, the pair of them starting to talk about some video game that Jace vaguely recognized from Max mentioning. Thankfully, in the distance, he could hear two cars approaching, one with the tell-tale rattle in the engine of Alec's vehicle, so Jace gathered the one close behind would be Maia's. He heard the cars park at the curb outside and let out a thankful sigh that he hoped no one noticed. "So what's the reason that you called—" he was cut off when the front door opened and Alec stepped through.

"Magnus?" Alec frowned, his jaw clenching as he saw the warlock.

"Alexander," Magnus cooed out and Clary looked over in interest as the rest of the pack stumbled through the front door. Jem was half asleep and tripped over Will's ankle, and Isabelle shoved at Max as she tried to get in past her little brother, and Maia pulled Jem's hair to try and wake him up. Clary's interest seemed to wane at the clumsy and immature antics and Jace rolled his eyes, not feeling quite as relieved as he did before that his pack had arrived.

"You invited _him_?" Alec scrunched up his nose as he jabbed a finger in Magnus' direction.

"He's with me," Clary piped up. "Making friends everywhere you go I see, Mags," she grinned.

"Something like that, biscuit," Magnus smirked.

"Right, okay," Clary glanced around the room, which was now full of the Herondale pack, Charlotte, Lydia, Magnus and Simon. Alec was still glaring at Magnus and Jem looked like he was falling asleep while leaning against the door frame, but the smile was now gone from Clary's face and she twisted on the arm of the couch to look directly at Charlotte. "So," she began. "Stick up his ass Alpha over here—" she jerked her thumb at Jace, who let his eyes glow red angrily. "—Said that his group of misfits here—" she waved her hand at the rest of the pack, who didn't look particularly happy at her new name for them. "—Except for you, doll, your jacket is amazing," she winked at Isabelle, who didn't look as pissed off as she did a moment ago. "—Said that they were attacked by an Alpha. _Please_ tell me that there's more to this story than just some rogue Alpha running around and stinking up some other were's territory." This time Jace couldn't help but let out a growl and Clary looked in his direction with a roll of her eyes, snapping her teeth at him.

"You know that I wouldn't have you cutting your time in Australia short for just an Alpha," Charlotte responded, the smile that had been on her face for the first time in history gone again as she looked over at the younger woman. "No, Jace here said that they saw a circle on the neck of the Alpha that attacked." The colour drained from Clary's face and she turned her eyes to look over at Jace. For a moment, Jace caught a whiff of her scent; fear and worry. But then, just as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared once again.

He hated it.

This woman put him on edge, and given his injury and this strange 'circle' scar that seemed to be worrying the magical ones around him, he was already feeling nervous and didn't want anything more unusual. He hadn't even been able to sense Clary in his apartment until she was right in front of him, and as a werewolf with supernatural senses, he wasn't used to being caught off guard. And what made it even _worse_ was that Clary looked at him as though she could read everything on right on his face, which made him the one at a disadvantage.

"A circle?" Clary stated, her words coming out clipped. "Are you sure?"

"It's not as though we took a long moment to actually _study_ it," Will snapped.

"It looked like a scar, and it glowed sometimes," Isabelle added.

"Have you ever seen it before?" Clary asked, swinging her eyes between each of the pack members before resting them back on Jace, who was not bothering to hide the way he was glaring at her.

"Have I ever seen a guy with a burning circle on his neck?" Jace spat at her. "No, I don't believe so."

"Sarcastic prick," Clary snipped back, all joking and oozing confidence completely gone. He was pretty certain that she was scared, behind her facade of anger, and he tried not to let show how unnerved he was by the fact that he couldn't pick up on any of her emotions. "I'm trying to fucking help you here." Jace stalked forward at that comment, shoulders squared and eyes flashing red. He instantly could feel his pack at his back, snarling, their heckles raised at someone talking to their Alpha that way, especially with him already in his vulnerable position.

"We don't need you here," Jace hissed at her. "Storming in here and acting as though you own the place and are running the show. We can deal with a rogue Alpha, we've done it before. You're making this out to be so much bigger than it is, and I have no idea why. Trying to inflate you're ego? Act as though you're the only one who can figure this whole thing out?"

"You have no idea what you're up against!" Clary's temper flared and she was meeting him toe-to-toe, her eyes glowing a bright purple colour. Jace felt his pack's confusion, knowing that they couldn't sense her chemosignals and emotions either, and it was confusing them. The only smell coming off her was that sharp smell, like lightning, and it was getting stronger and stronger by the minute, the metallic scent filling the air.

"Oh, and so you're just going to waltz in and _educate us_ about what we're up against?!" Jace snapped at her. " _We can handle this_ ," he growled at her, standing directly in front of him, his eyes bright red, meeting the purple flashing orbs she was giving him. Clary locked her jaw, shaking her head from side to side before letting out a hard, extremely insincere laugh and storming past Jace, shouldering him with a surprising amount of force. His pack seemed to realize that she wasn't someone to be missed with because they all quickly stepped out of her way as she practically flew past. Jace had been so completely focused on Clary that he hadn't even realized that the lights were flickering and the glass in the window pane was shaking. A few moments after she left, the lights glowed normally again and the glass stopped vibrating.

"I'm...Just gonna go..." Simon got up from where he was sitting, not looking at all surprised by her reaction, pushing his glasses further up his nose before quickly walking out in the same direction that Clary had gone. Magnus was leaning against the wall, watching the whole interaction, his catlike eyes taking everything in, before he pushed off the wall and followed after the other two. On his way past Alec, he sent the werewolf a sultry expression and a smirk, making the werewolf narrow his eyes once more. Magnus just grinned and disappeared from the room.

"Right, so, that went well," Lydia muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes and walking over to the windows to make sure that there wasn't any lasting damage in the frame or the glass.

"You're going to need to fix that," Charlotte said bluntly.

"Like hell I do," Jace snapped.

"You do," Charlotte repeated. "This isn't something you can handle by yourself, despite how great you think your abilities are. You need her, and you need to make things better between yourself and her." The pack were still rattled, although they were covering their feelings well, but Jace could feel their nervousness. "Your wound," the older woman nodded to Jace's side. "Is it healed yet?" Jace pursed his lips together, breathing out heavily through his nose. "I thought not."

"It's because it was another Alpha who inflicted it—that's _normal_ ," Jace growled.

"It's been a couple of days, it should look a hell of a lot better. Let's have a look then," Charlotte raised her eyebrows, getting up from where she was seated and waving a hand at Jace's side. He felt the eyes of his pack turn to him, waiting for him to lift his shirt and show that the wound was almost completely healed. But Jace couldn't do that, because the truth was, it was nowhere near close to being healed. "Right. So, you need to make it right with that girl, because she knows far more about this than I do, and you need her help." Alec licked his lips and looked to Jace.

"It's not healed yet?" He asked quietly. Jace squared his jaw, blinking slowly before shaking his head once.

"You need to fix that," Charlotte repeated once last time before looking at the door pointedly behind the pack of werewolves. "Don't let the door hit you on the way out."


	5. Chapter 5

Robert and Maryse Lightwood had been parental figures in Jace's life for as long as he could remember. His parents had died when he was young, killed on a mission that they had been doing for the Clave. There were hardly any photos from when he was young, a couple of himself when he was a baby, some of his parents together before he was born, and only two of them together with him as an infant. The Lightwoods were his family, they took him in after his his parents passed away and treated him like one of his own. Even after he had presented as an Alpha, which could create problems in a family where one of the parents wasn't the one passing on the Alpha spark, they didn't try to send him away, to grow up with the Clave or in one of their Institutes.

So now, when he was confused and unsure of his next step, that was who he turned to. His pack wanted to come back to his loft, still feeling off kilter since the Spark's reaction to the news of the man with the circle on his neck. But he needed some time to think. So he sent them off, knowing that they would all stick together, probably all going back to Helen and Aline's place, telling them that he would meet up with them shortly.

Jace got back to his loft early morning, Charlotte not happy with a pack of werewolves invading her house, as per usual. Before Jace had walked out the door, the older woman had stopped Jace, asking to see the wound at his side. The rest of the pack had been walking in front of them, toward their cars, except for Alec, who was hanging back to wait for his Alpha. They would be able to hear exactly what was being said, but they were far enough to be able to see the wound if he blocked their view. Jace had paused, not sure if he should show Charlotte, but from the stubborn set of her jaw, he knew that he didn't have much of a choice. He had pulled up his shirt, subtly turning to the side so that Alec didn't see that the slash hadn't healed yet.

He had been right when he had said it was normal for an Alpha's wound to take longer to heal than usual. If it had been one of his beta's who had drove their claws into his side, then it would be healed within hours. If it had been any other werewolf, other than an Alpha, or pretty much any other injury, it would be healed usually within half a day, a full day at the most. An Alpha's wound could apparently take up to two days to heal, that was just common knowledge.

But those two days had past, and it should at least be honestly healed, but the skin was still trying to stitch itself back together.

It wasn't normal.

Charlotte had tsked under her breath, telling him to ensure that he was keeping the wound clean and then reminding him that he needed to mend things between himself and the hothead Spark.

Alec had questions and definite concerns, but he kept quiet as they went outside. He got into his car, where his siblings and Will were waiting for him, and drove away without a look back. He trusted Jace and he knew that when Jace was ready to open up to him, the Alpha would come to then.

"Maryse?" Jace murmured into the phone as the ringing stopped and there was a click to signal that someone had picked up.

"Jace—sweetie, how are you?" Maryse Lightwood asked, her words clipped. Despite the fact that she always looked and sounded uptight, for the people that knew her best, they could hear the warmth that was hidden just beneath the surface.

"I'm...Fine," Jace didn't want her to panic, given she was like a mother to him. But the hesitation had been enough, and he heard the way her breathing changed over the phone.

"Hold on a second," she muttered and her voice shifted, as though she had pulled the phone away from her ear. "Rob! Robert!" She called out, still holding the phone away from her face. The pair of them mustn't be on a mission at the moment if they were both there and so easily accessible to talk. He could heard footsteps getting closer, and then the familar, low voice of Robert came through the speaker phone as well, a little tinny, so Maryse must have changed to speaker phone.

"Jace, is something wrong?" Robert asked, getting straight to the point.

"Uh..." Jace pursed his lips, looking toward his front door with his eyebrows pulled together as though he was worried Clary was going to come traipsing back through without him getting a single warning of her intrusion. "There's a rogue Alpha in town," he stated, deciding to just get it over with, without bothering to make any small talk.

"Okay..." Maryse didn't sound as though she understood. "Annoying and maybe cause for a little alarm, but not anything that you can't handle. You've got a whole pack behind you, whereas this is a single Alpha."

"Well, not exactly a single Alpha. Had someone with him, maybe a human, because I wasn't getting any scent of a werewolf off him. But..." Jace broke off, pursing his lips together as he turned back to face the windows that covered almost the complete back wall. "There was just something about them that was different. The werewolf caught me in the side, and it's barely started healing. The stab wound from the other one is gone, stung like a bitch from the wolfsbane, but the slashes form the Alpha hasn't yet." He thought about mentioning the weird scar on his neck, but for some reason decided against it.

"Have you spoken with Charlotte?" Robert asked. "You really need to get an emissary," he added almost as an afterthought and Jace rolled his eyes at the sentiment that he had heard a hundred times before. "A Spark or warlock for your own pack."

"Yeah, I know," Jace mumbled, not wanting to get into that conversation for the umpteenth time. "Charlotte called in someone—Clary." There was silence for a moment, at least silence from anyone speaking, Jace heard both of Lightwoods heartbeats pick up on the other end of the phone, as though they were worried or nervous.

"Clarissa?" Maryse asked, her voice sounding strained. "Clarissa Fray?"

"Uh, yeah, I think that was her last name," Jace answered. "Why—do you know her?"

"Only by reputation," Maryse answered, although there was something in the way that she phrased it that sounded as though she was being careful about what she said. She wasn't lying though, Jace could hear the truth in the way her heart was beating. "I knew her mother."

"We both did," Robert added.

"There's something about her, I just get this weird feeling off her," Jace told them honestly. "I can't get a proper read on her, can barely get anything off her—there's no chemosignals, there's no scents, it's like she's completely shielded herself off from anyone picking up on her emotions." To humans, not being able to tell when someone was lying or telling the truth, or being able to tell if they were happy, sad, angry—it wasn't uncommon. But for werewolves, the scents and chemosignals were what guided them, and it was something that they were used to, that they relied on.

"Trust your instincts, Jace," Maryse stated. "You know that you should always trust your instincts. You have a right to be suspicious or weary of anyone who shows up that you don't know." Jace frowned, once more, at the way Maryse was phrasing her sentences.

"But?" He prompted, guessing that there was something more.

"But she will be invaluable to whatever it is that you're having difficulties with," Robert concluded. "She's a powerful Spark, takes after her mother. I understand that she's also a bit—a bit difficult, at times, just like her mother, but she will be a powerful asset if she's on your side." Jace had already gathered that she was powerful, based on the fact that Charlotte had called her in, but he was surprised that Robert and Maryse had even heard about Clary, given how many Sparks there were out there. Sure, the Clave definitely kept an eye on the more dangerous ones, but names were all record, there were far too many to try and memorize the names of.

"Yeah," Jace bit down on the tip of his tongue as he shrugged his shoulders. "Anyway, I just wanted to keep you guys in the loop."

"Thank you for your call, Jace," Maryse said. "And make sure you call if you have any other problems."

"If you see my kids, tell them that I'm expecting a call on my birthday next week," Robert piped up, his teasing tone lightning the mood of the conversation.

"Yeah, I will," Jace replied. "Thank you." They said their farewells and Jace ended the call. He needed to get some rest, but even as he walked down to his bedroom, his mind kept going back to the Spark. He didn't understand how she had such a reputation, for someone so young. Sure, maybe she just _looked_ young, and she could actually be several hundreds—maybe even thousands of years old—but it didn't feel like that. Plus, the kid that she was with—Simon—he was definitely young, and he didn't seem to have any special powers, and it would be strange for someone who was so old to hang around with someone so young.

And yet Charlotte said that she was more powerful than herself?

More powerful than any other warlock that she knew?

Magnus was more powerful than any other warlock _Jace_ knew, he knew that Magnus was widely known and revered. But that meant that Clary was more powerful than Magnus.

Although, Charlotte had identified Clary as a Spark, the same as herself, while Magnus was a warlock. Jace had never understood the difference between the two, he had never really had someone he could ask. Charlotte wasn't exactly the most talkative, and while Magnus would probably be more than happy to chatter away to him, it was _Jace_ that didn't want to talk to him.

Jace still didn't think that they needed this girls help with whatever it was they were facing, but the look of worry on her face had made him worried. And the way that Charlotte had reacted when she found out about the burning circle...The same as Clary...

He didn't know what it was, but clearly there was something more to this rogue Alpha than he knew, so he would need to find some way to contact Clary in the morning, try to smooth things over.

Jace growled under his breath as he finally collapsed on his bed, falling asleep for the first time in what felt like months.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait, guys.  
> Life is crazy.

Jace slept heavily that night, with his doors and windows all bolted shut so that he could at least pretend that no one could get in, even though he knew that Clary could just walk right in if she so wanted. He did hear someone come in partway through the night, and he was awake straight away, poised to get out of bed as he waited, listening, to see if who it was who had entered the apartment was a threat.

But then he had soft footsteps, and the scent of pack washed over him, and a moment later, Isabelle and Jem were creeping into his bed. He heard more movement, but from the scents that were coming down, and the comforting heart beats he could hear through the walls, he knew that it was a couple of other of his pack members, making themselves comfortable in his lounge.

He should have known that they would show up.

He had only  _just_  managed to get them to leave the night before, so that he could clear his head before Clary had shown up; so of course they were going to come back tonight.

Jace slept better with them there, and when he woke up in the morning, Helen had also crawled into bed with them, curling up along the bottom of the bed, by their feet, with one of Jace's spare blankets thrown over her, and Max had curled up on the floor with a bunch of pillows that he must have brought in from the lounge. Jace smiled, Jem snoring slightly and Isabelle taking up far more of the bed than her small figure  _should_  allow, but then that was Isabelle, always making her presence known. When Isabelle rolled over, making a mumbling noise at the back of her throat, the smile on his face disappeared, seeing the slashes on her neck that she had received from the Alpha.

They had been deep—not as deep as the attack that he had been delivered to his side—but still deep, especially since they weren't healing as quickly as they were used to.

Seeing the wounds on his beta's neck made the hair on the back of his neck bristle, and his wolf twist angrily inside of him. He wanted to rip apart anyone who hurt his back, but most of the time he was able to curb that rage. However with the wounds so obvious on Isabelle's neck, reminding him that someone had attacked his pack—someone that he hadn't be able to stop—was just making him furious all over again.

Jace reached out and laid his hand on the curve of Isabelle's shoulder, where it met her neck, and his fingertips tingled as he made sure that she wasn't feeling any pain. His veins turned dark as he absorbed the remaining pain from her, sighing as he realized that the pain was still there. His own injury ached dully, only really protesting when he moved and stretched it, but he was an Alpha, he had certain powers that they didn't, and pushing away his pain—dealing with it—was a big part of that.

Jace got out of bed slowly, not wanting to disrupt his pack members that were in bed. They shifted a little, and although their subconscious would have heard him get up, given it was his scent in the room and no one they didn't recognize, the were's didn't wake up. As he walked down the hallway toward his lounge. His nose crinkled at the slight electric smell that was still hanging around, left behind by Clary when she had broken into his loft, and it made the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stick up. It was strange that it wasn't an actual scent of her, of her body, just the scent of her magic that was still crackling in the air. He was hoping that the smell would disappear soon, smothered by the scent of his pack.

It was getting closer to nine in the morning, and Jace should really be waking up his pack, because it was a week day, and they had jobs, but with everything that had been going on in the past few days, Jace didn't have the heart. If they had issues with any of their employer's, they could come up with some excuse about some family drama. Most of their bosses were good people anyway, and they had good relationships with them—Jem, Alec and Max's employer was even a supernatural creature, a faerie with a low level affinity toward iron, and so he was aware of the men being werewolves.

He opened up his fridge, and was glad when he saw that it was stacked up. He wasn't sure when this had happened, given it had been pretty much empty just the day before, but it wasn't unusual for the pack to buy food and stock his fridge, given how often they all ate over here, despite having their own homes. Jace pulled out a carton of eggs and a loaf of bread, knowing that his pack would all start coming into the room when they smelt food cooking. He was just starting to fry the first couple of eggs when he heard two sets of feet approaching. He didn't panic, however, because he could already pick up their scent from inside the house and hear the familiar beat of their hearts. Alec and Will.

"Of course you show up just as food is getting ready," Jace muttered, knowing that the two of them could hear him through the thick metal door of the loft. Will had a smirk on his face when they opened the door, but Alec's face was pinched, pretty much as per usual.

"Maia is going to be here soon as well, she's bringing Aline—they're just dropping off Jordan at work," Will said as he climbed up onto the bar stool on the other side of the counter, picking up an apple from the fruit bowl. Jace hadn't actually realized that the fruit bowl was filled either, clearly filled at the same time that the fridge and cupboards were.

"I'm guessing you guys are playing hooky, then?" Jace raised an eyebrow at the two men.

"We called in, said we would be late," Alec shrugged, not too bothered. Money wasn't too big of a deal for them. Jace's parents had been high up members of the Clave, and there was a lot of money left to him. They also got payments from the Clave—the council looked after their werewolves. "Thought that we'd stop by here first, make sure everything was okay." The underlying statement was actually that he wanted to make sure Jace was okay, but he knew better than to actually say that.

"You lot get started on breakfast," Jace said as he started back down the hall toward the bathroom. "The rest will wake up the minute they smell food." Which was true.

If there was one thing that always got his pack stumbling out of bed; it was food.

Jace turned on the shower, shutting the door to undress even though there wasn't much point, because if any of his pack wanted to come into the bathroom, a simple thing like a door wouldn't stop them. Things like privacy went out the window when it came to pack, and growing up as a werewolf meant Jace had absolutely no qualms about nudity, given often their clothes would get ripped and stripped off their bodies as they ran through the woods on a full moon.

He could hear Alec and Will starting on breakfast, not trying to be quiet at all, and a small, rare smile pricked at his lips as he heard a groan of annoyance from his bedroom. It was probably Isabelle, even though she would be singing the boys praises when she realized that they were making noise because they were making breakfast. He showered quickly, scrubbing himself over with the wild lime and tangelo body scrub that the girls insisted he keep there, given how often they showered at his place. His movements seemed to get even more rougher as he washed around his torso, stubbornly ignoring the sting that came from from rubbing over the gashes on his side.

Jace turned off the shower, and he could hear movement in the lounge and dining room area, so he knew that the rest of his pack had managed to drag themselves out of bed. He wrapped a towel loosely around his waist as he walked down to his bedroom. He dressed, into a pair of sweatpants and a loose shirt before joining the rest of his pack in the dining room.

"This bacon is fucking good," Isabelle picked up a piece of the streaky bacon, tipping back her head and holding it above her mouth, chewing it quickly. Jace just rolled his eyes, noting that Maia and Aline had arrived and were making themselves comfortable on the couch. Alec was moving quickly in the kitchen, flipping out streaking bacon and fried eggs, and Will was manning the deep fryer, putting in one lot of hash browns after the other. He walked over to sit down at his table, crossing his arms over his chest as he listened in on the conversations around him.

Maia and Aline were discussing their partners, apparently Jordan Kyle was still leaving his washing on the ground rather than putting it in the washing basket, and Helen was on some juice cleanse, and so there was barely any  _real_  food in their fridge. Jem was obsessed with some cupcake game that he had downloaded on his phone two weeks ago and his fingers were moving rapidly over the screen, collecting them or decorating them, or whatever it was that he did. Max was in the kitchen, annoying his brother and Will, trying to grab bacon and complaining that Isabelle had gotten a piece, why couldn't he? Isabelle was just watching in amusement, sticking her tongue out as her youngest brother grumbled under his breath and looked over at her, antagonizing him further.

It was very domestic, and Jace was always happy when they could have downtime, to just act like a normal family.

"Foods up!" Will announced as he carried two of the piled high dishes over to table. "Grab plates, knives and forks, Max," he called over his shoulder. As Alec came out from the kitchen, around the breakfast bar where Isabelle was sitting, Jace saw the beta's eyes narrow as he caught a glimpse of his sisters wound. He was carrying over the last dish, this one with fried eggs on it, and he stopped by the head of the table, where Jace was sitting.

"Charlotte seemed pretty set on the fact that we need Clary's help with whoever it is that did this," Alec stated under his breath. "You need to go and talk to her." Jace twisted his mouth, not particularly liking the idea of seeking out the Spark.

"And you think that we need to talk to Magnus as well? You ready for that?" Jace lifted his eyebrow and Alec glowered at the mention of the warlock.

"If it means finding out who did that to my sister and my pack, then yes. Bring the warlock in as well," Alec didn't look particularly happy at the idea of Magnus coming back into their lives, but Jace knew that he would push that behind him to find out what was going and who it was that attacked them.

"Okay," Jace took in a deep breath. "I'll speak to her."


	7. Chapter 7

There wasn't the best history between Magnus and the Herondale pack. He wasn't an emissary, he didn't become a part of  _any_  pack, and that was by choice.

A lot of supernatural creatures sought out each other, wanting to form ties in the community, finding safety and home with each other. While not all werewolf packs had an emissary—a warlock or a Spark who helped to heal and look after the pack—many of them did. It was a better idea for a pack to have an emissary, given that the longer the emissary was with the werewolves, the better they could heal them and the stronger their connection to them were. They could help strengthen the bonds between the were's, help heal them, and draw power from each other. That was why Jace, as an Alpha, kept being told by others that it would be a good idea for him to find an emissary.

For a short period of time, when they had been having some difficulties with a nest of harpies, it seemed as though Magnus might be a good fit as their emissary. He got on well with everyone and he was powerful. He got on maybe a little  _too_  well with Alec, given the pair of them only took three days before they ended up in bed together—the self satisfied smirks on their faces the next day was enough to tell the pack everything that they needed to know. Things felt good, but after a month—once the harpies were dealt with—Magnus wrote a note, left it behind for Alec to find when he woke up in the morning, and then disappeared.

It turned that he really wasn't the fit for them.

He was a warlock for hire—which wasn't something to sneer at, people did it, they needed to make a living. There were warlocks who would play intimidation games and some even went further to be guns for hire. There were witches who sold their spells, vampires who sucked blood which gave the other person temporary euphoria, the list went on and on. Hell, Charlotte had blatantly said that Clary worked for a fee—Clary had been upfront about it as well, and that was at least one thing that Jace appreciated.

But Magnus hadn't charged them for his help, he had been willing to help them,  _he had climbed in bed with Alec,_  and then just a few weeks later, they found out that he was helping out a pack that Jace had had a lot of problems with in the past. It was the fact that he hadn't been upfront with them that had caused a rift between him and their pack, especially with Alec.

The next day, Jace went to find Clary.

He didn't have a phone number for her or Simon, and he had no idea where she was staying, and he really didn't feel like going to Charlotte and Lydia's place—there would be all sorts of judgy looks if he went there, and he had deleted Magnus' number a long time ago. It might have been easier if he actually had Clary's scent, but even then, he would have to go all over town looking for the Spark. For some reason, he was drawn to a bar in the middle of town, and when he opened the front door, he was hit with that sharp smell of electricity and he spotted the red head at the end of the bar, tucked around the corner with a drink in her hand.

He thought about making some snarky remark about drinking so early, but when he looked up at the clock on the wall, he saw that it was just after midday, so maybe it wasn't  _quite_  as early as he thought it was. Jace took in a deep breath, shoving his hands into the back pockets of his jeans as he approached her. She didn't move or flinch as he approached, but he  _knew_  that she knew he was there.

"Afternoon," Jace said through gritted teeth as he got up on the bar stool next to Clary. He took in another deep breath, directly through his nose this time, hoping to catch  _something_  off her, but just as he unfortunately expected, there was nothing. When she shifted and pulled her bag over from where it was resting on the counter, he got a strong whiff of Magnus. Her hair was a little disheveled and the jacket that she was wearing was clearly male, and wondered idly if they were sleeping together, since he knew Magnus swung both ways. But it was none of his business, and definitely not the reason that he was looking for her today. "I came to...Talk to you."

"To apologize?" Clary lifted an eyebrow as she sipped at the scotch from her glass. Jace watched as she swallowed, and she kept her face forward, not looking toward him, not making it easier on him.

"I spoke with Robert and Maryse Lightwood," Jace continued, pointedly not answering her question. "They're friends of mine—pretty much my parents—" Clary lifted her eyebrow again, and put her glass down on the wooden counter top. "—And they said that they knew your mother." He hoped that Clary would say something at that point, but she didn't. "And they said to trust you, so here I am."

"Should I be thanking you at this point?" Clary smirked, finally looking over at him, although the smile didn't quite meet her eyes. There was a flat, detached look in them, as though she was being careful with what she said and how much she gave away. Jace rolled his eyes. "For deciding to trust me? Coz I don't really think that's the way it works, especially since  _you_ hired  _me_."

"Look, the first thing that I want to get out of the way, is payment," Jace stated.

"I usually charge by the day, but since you're... _Friends_  with Charlotte, Lydia and Magnus, maybe I can cut you a deal," Clary stated, and with the way that she put an emphasis on 'friends', Jace was guessing that she knew that wasn't the right word to describe his relationship with them. "Obviously, you need to cover any expenses that Si or I have along the way, but we can work out the fee at the end."

"Alright," Jace wasn't too sure if he liked the idea of not knowing how much he was in for, but it wasn't as though money was a problem for him.

"So you want to tell me exactly what you saw?" Clary pushed the drink away from her and turned the bar stool around so that she was facing Jace fully.

"Wasn't anything special," Jace glanced around them, lowering his voice even though there was barely anyone else in the bar. He couldn't smell any supernaturals either, although some knew how to conceal their scent, especially faeries. "I could smell a werewolf—an Alpha. We had been tracking it, and Aline—"

"The banshee," Clary interjected, to clarify, and she matched his low volume, keeping the conversation limited to the pair of them.

"Yes, that's her—and we ended up in the forest. We split up to cover more ground, and it attacked Isabelle."

"Her neck," Clary murmured, and Jace nodded.

"Maia and Izzy, they said that he didn't smell right, that there was something off about him," Jace shrugged. "He caught me by surprise—I didn't pick up his scent until he was right on top of me, like he was masking it. We fought and I had him pinned down. Someone else appeared—it wasn't a werewolf, I think maybe he was human. And then this scar on his neck, it started glowing bright red." Clary frowned and she squared her jaw, pursing her lips together. "The second person jumped at me, drove a dagger that was covered in wolfsbane into my neck. That distracted me, and I was knocked unconscious for a couple of minutes—the Alpha clawed at me," he waved a hand idly at his side. "When I came to, they were gone, and that was when we went back to Charlotte and Lydia's."

Clary still wasn't speaking, but he could tell that she was listening closely to what he was saying. Jace stared at her, waiting for some reaction— _hoping_  to catch some chemosignal from her, giving him some hint as to what she was thinking.

But there was nothing, and after picking up her tumbler to finish off the remaining scotch, she slid off the bar stool, and Jace couldn't help but be disappointed as she picked up her bag, making her intention to leave clear. Her face was stern, and she looked almost worried, even though her her general personality seemed to say that she was confident and unbothered by what happened around her.

"I accept your apology," she told him, and when she looked up, there was a smirk on her face again, although it still wasn't reflected in her eyes. Jace was about to protest, say that he had never apologized, but then she reached out and slid her hand underneath his shirt. Jace, once again, was about to protest, but her hand was warm against his skin, and there was a prickle from her fingertips, stretching out over his injuries. It felt like tiny pricks of electricity, and although it was an unusual feeling, it wasn't a bad one. He twitched in his seat, his spine ramrod straight. "So, just sit back, big Alpha man, and I'll sort this out." That finally triggered Jace because he jerked away from her and glared.

"I'm not just going to sit to the side and watch you try to save the day," he snapped at her. Clary just lifted her eyebrow at him, that frustrating smirk still on her face. Jace honestly had no idea what else he was meant to say to her, and it seemed as though she already knew that, because her smile widened. There was a spark in her eyes, that purple flash that Jace was still caught off guard by, and then she practically skipped past him.

Jace's eyes followed after her, as she left through the front door of the bar, and then he took in a deep breath as he looked back at top of the bar.

He had no idea what Clary's end game was.

He had no idea what she was after.

And he  _fucking hated it_.

Jace pursed his lips together and got off the bar stool, carefully not stretching his side in an attempt not to hurt the gashes that were still healing, and then he was surprised when there was no pain at all.

He jerked up his shirt to look at his side, and the wound was completely gone.


	8. Chapter 8

A week went by.

Isabelle's wounds were healed almost completely, just small scratches on her neck.

They hadn't had any more run ins with the Alpha, or any of his associates, and they hadn't smelt him around town.

They also hadn't seen Clary, or Magnus or Simon, and he hadn't heard from their either.

Jace didn't like the idea of just sitting around, so the next Friday night, he and Alec made sure the rest of their pack were safe in his loft, and then they went back to the preserve on the edge of town, where the attack had happened. Jace got out of his Camaro, slamming the door shut and shoving his hands into his pockets as he looked over at Alec, who had his head tilted back, scenting the air.

"I smell Magnus," he stated, a sour expression on his face.

"And Clary's friend," Jace muttered as they began walking across the preserve, toward the forest on the edge. It was dark, and the preserve was empty, which suited them perfectly. Humans were told to avoid the preserve and the forest around it when it was dark, because it was dark and far away from town, and it made them easy targets. Sometimes, teenagers or people who were cheating on their partners would park up at the preserve and make out in the back, but they barely ever ventured any further than the car park. "I can't smell her though."

"Nope, she can mask her scent," Alec grunted. "Although, there is that sharp sort of smell, at least that's I caught when we were at Charlotte and Lydia's."

"Like summer lightning," Jace said under his breath, and he missed the side look that Alec gave him. They got into the forest, and given there was no one around, they picked up their pace, running until they had reached the spot where Jace had fallen after being attacked by two of the people with the circle shaped tattoo's on their necks. Tattoo's, or glowing marks, he really had no idea. Jace reached the small clearing where he had been attacked and he stopped, looking around. "She was here," he said to Alec, who was already nodding. He could smell that sharp scent that seemed to be the only thing he could pick up from her in the trees and the ground.

"And the other two were with her," Alec crouched down, noting where some leaves had been disturbed recently. "At least we know that she's looking into it." Jace nodded, walking over to one of the tree's where he could smell Magnus, the warlocks scent all over it. There were barely any scents in the air, even though they knew that there had been three people there. Humans usually left scents lying around everywhere, their own personal scents over everything that they had touched and then their emotions usually hanging around in the air for a day or so after, tainting the fresh breeze.

"Have you spoken with Magnus?" Jace asked quietly.

"No," Alec practically snapped out, and Jace was glad that he was facing away away from his beta, because a small smile pulled at his lips. "Why would I have done that?"

"I don't know..." Jace shrugged. "We could see it on your face when you saw him at Charlotte's...And your heart beat was going absolutely crazy." He could hear Alec's heartbeat picking up now, even though the were was trying to contain it. "You know—" he broke off, not too sure what to say. "You know that we won't hold it against you if there's something that you wanted to pursue with him." Alec snorted and Jace turned around to look at him.

"He's a warlock for hire who isn't loyal to anyone except for himself," Alec muttered. "And I've got nothing to speak to him about so there won't be any—any  _speaking_." Jace raised an eyebrow at the way his second stumbled over his words and Alec just held up a hand. "Shut up," he growled and Jace just shrugged.

"If you don't want to talk to Magnus, then it's nothing that I'm going to push," Jace said. "Where you decide to put your dick is between you and the lucky guy."

"Thanks," Alec retorted sarcastically. "But I don't like 'putting my dick' in people who betrayed us."

" _Technically_  he never betrayed us," Jace pointed out with another shrug as he walked over to where he had fallen just under two weeks ago, bending down on one knee. "I mean, it's not like he revealed anything about us to Rodrigo's clan." Alec made an unhappy noise under his breath, but Jace knew that Alec knew he was telling the truth. The first—and only other time than with Clary in Charlotte's living room—that they had encountered Magnus was when they had needed his help with some harpies that continued invading their territory. Magnus had only been there for a couple of days before he and Alec had fallen into bed with each other, and it hadn't taken a werewolf to be able to see and smell how happy Alec was when he was with the warlock in the weeks that they spent together.

However, it had been a job, and after they had managed to get the harpies off their land, it turned out that one of Magnus' long time clients was Rodrigo Torres, a vampire leader of one of the oldest clans in their part of the country. Also someone that they weren't on the best terms with. When Alec had realized that Magnus was going their directly after he finished with their pack, there had been a fiery argument between the two. Jace and the others in the pack weren't too sure of how things had exactly gone, but they knew that there had been a note left and then Magnus was gone.

Jace could understand that Alec felt lied to, but it had only been very early on in their relationship—if that's even what they could call it, and in all fairness, Magnus was blatantly someone who cared about money, given he was working  _for them_ , even if in the end, he hadn't taken payment. Definitely because of Alec. However Jace also hadn't been a big fan of Magnus, he was cocky and knew all too well just how powerful he was, and it made Jace uncomfortable to have someone like that around, so he didn't argue Magnus' side too hard.

Seeing Alec's response, though, after a year had gone past, it was obvious he still had feelings for him.

"I just...I wanted to make sure that you knew that we just want you to be happy, and if Magnus is what makes you happy, then...Go for it," Jace felt uncomfortable and so he shook his head and cleared his throat. "Okay, well, we know that they had been here, we know that they're still looking into it."

"And we're just leaving it to them to do their thing?" Alec snorted, surprised at his Alpha's seemingly made up mind as he began to turn to head back out of the forest.

"It sounds as though Clary knows a bit more about this than we do, and if her and Magnus can help us figure out what we're up against, we'd be stupid not to take their help," Jace responded, trying to sound certain of his choice. Alec didn't look convinced, but he didn't argue as they began walking back out of the forest, their footsteps almost silent on the leaves and twigs that they were crossing over.

"How's your side?" Alec asked as they started getting toward the clearing. "Are you healed now?"

"Yeah," Jace muttered, his fingers instinctively going toward his side, to the wound that had been there for the past couple of days, longer than any other wound that had been inflicted on his body. "It's fine."

"Took longer than a normal Alpha wound," Alec noted. Jace just grunted under his breath in response, not wanting to get into the fact that it would have taken longer, except somehow Clary had healed it when she had touched him. They fell quiet as they crossed the clearing, toward the car.

* * *

"I really just don't see how this is fair," Clary tilted her head to the side with a teasing smile on her face, as she dipped one of her fingers into the nearly empty cocktail glass in front of her, and then stuck it in the corner of her mouth. "I travel all this way, you and I finally have some time off together where we're not working, and you're saying that you don't want to come back to my lovely, welcoming motel room that smells like dead people with me?"

"Oh, biscuit," Magnus smirked at her, leaning in so that their knees were now bumping together and he reached out so that he could trail one finger down the side of her face. "I'm afraid that there's someone else that I have my eye on."

"The dark haired, moody looking one," Clary stated, and Magnus lifted his eyebrow, but it really shouldn't have surprised him. "Don't think that I missed the way the two of you looked at each other, I may not have seen you for a long time, but I know you well." Magnus let his hand fall from her face and tipped his head from side to side. She looked up at the clock on the wall of the bar and made a face. "Shit, I should probably start heading back to that shitty little motel room, actually," she stated, leaning back in the booth. "This place is going to close up soon." They were pretty much the only ones left, except an older man at the bar who looked as though he had fallen asleep on the bar stool where he was slumped.

"Sounds like a good idea," Magnus nodded. "Did you want me to portal us back?"

"You're not the only one that can create a portal," Clary laughed and Magnus just shrugged.

"I'm not used to having another warlock around," Magnus responded. He slid out from the booth and then held out his hand to assist Clary out from their booth. Clary took his hand, her feet a little shaky underneath her from the alcohol that they had drunk through the evening. All it would take was a click of her fingers and then all effects would be gone, but she liked the feeling, the slight buzz in her veins, and so she would let it stay for a while longer. "Did you want to walk back to your motel? It's been a while since I've just walked through the night."

"Sounds like a good idea," Clary nodded and Magnus waited as she pulled her jacket on, doing up a few buttons before grabbing her purse in one hand and slipping the other one through Magnus' arm. They walked for a while, talking idly, jumping from one subject to another. Clary and Magnus had known each other for a while, and before she had passed away, Magnus had also been close friend with Clary's mother. Given how busy both of their lives were, however, it had been a long time since they had properly caught up with each other.

They were almost at the end of the main street of town, which was reasonably empty, when both warlocks felt a presence that made their magic swirl angrily. Clary's skin prickled and she glanced toward Magnus, who was already frowning.

The two started running in the same direction, across the empty street, feet kicking up at the thin layer of water across the road. They reached an alley way, where the curly haired girl from Jace's pack—Maia—was pressed up against a brick wall, her eyes glowing gold.

In front of her, were two people, clearly threatening her. A girl with fangs—a vampire, and a man beside her,  _both_  of them with angry glowing, red circles on their necks.


	9. Chapter 9

"Ooh," the vampire tilted her head to the side, smirking as she drank the two in front of her in. She seemed to have forgotten about Maia, although she was still trapped in since her associate was standing on her other side. "What do we have here?" She hummed out as her eyes glanced between Clary and Magnus. "Looks like you've got some friends in high places," she smirked as she turned back to Maia, leaning forward and snapping her teeth at Maia's neck. Maia let out a threatening growl, but she barely moved, knowing that the vampire could snap her neck by closing her jaw around her trachea. The dark haired woman laughed and looked back toward Clary. "You know, there's something that is dying to see you. I think that—"

"Camille," the man commented, his voice harsh. "It's time to go," he smirked as he looked directly at Clary. "I think we've got our point across." Maia frowned, her eyes glowing in the dark, and Clary could sense that she was scared, but also angry at being caught off guard. The vampire and the man's necks both had the same circle burnt into them that the men from the first night had had, although they weren't glowing in the same way that theirs had. Maia tried not to let her fear show on her face, but the smirk that Camille directed at her told her that she wasn't doing a very good job.

Camille and the man turned on their heel, and they disappeared within seconds. Maia swallowed hard as she stepped away from the wall, staring into the darkness after the two, before spinning around and glaring at Clary and Magnus.

"You could have stopped them! What the fuck was that?!" Maia snapped. "You just let them go?!"

"Clearly she gets her manners from her Alpha," Magnus muttered, rolling his eyes as he ran his fingers through his spiky hair, the tips dyed a dark blue colour. "Now, I'm assuming you're going to want to take this puppy back to her pack?" Maia let out another growl and she curled her fingers inward, like claws, and Clary rolled her eyes, knowing first hand that Magnus had a way of getting underneath people's skin.

"Portal us to his apartment," Clary said with a nod. Magnus' eyes shifted for a moment, his warlock mark flickering over his orbs, and then he reached out and touched Maia's shoulder, and took Clary's hand, and the next thing, they were outside the heavy metal roller door of Jace's apartment.

"I think I can leave you two to take it from here," Magnus said, and then disappeared with a dull 'poof'. Clary looked across at Maia, who looked a little sick.

"It happens the first couple of times you portal," Clary commented off handedly as her fingers flickered, quickly destroying the wards that Jace had probably only just put up around his apartment since she brought down the first time she had come by. Once they were down, she grabbed a hold of the roller door and jerked it open, the lock clearly unlatched when she brought down the wards.

"You really need to learn the art of knocking," Jace commented tersely, not looking happy as he strode over to where her and Maia came into the room. He breezed past Clary, his concern clearly on Maia, and he cupped her face in his hands as he looked her over. "Are you okay?" He asked, thumbs gentle on her cheeks.

"She let them go!" Maia snapped, looking accusingly over at Clary, who just rolled her eyes again, which infuriated Maia no end. "Her and Magnus were _right there_  when they attacked me, and they just let them go." Jace frowned as he turned toward Clary, one of his hands still resting on Maia's face.

"I thought you were meant to be here to help us," his voice was just as accusatory as Maia's and Clary bit back the sneer that she felt creeping across her face.

"I  _am_ ," Clary pursed her lips. She was tired, and she had really no plan to face Jace tonight, which meant that she  _really_  hadn't mentally prepared herself for a run-in. His arrogance literally felt as though it sucked the energy out of him every time she was around him, and even though she knew that she wasn't the easiest person to get on with, but she was pretty sure that Jace was even harder. "Look, at the moment, other than your first meeting with members of The Cir—that  _group_ , it didn't go the best, but they haven't made any further attacks. Cornering Maia was just to get your attention, to make sure  _you knew_  that they were still around, still in town. It was a threat, but it wasn't an attack. If Magnus and I had attacked them..." Clary breathed out heavily through her nose, running her hands through her fiery coloured hair. "It wouldn't have been the smartest move."

"Oh, really? Taking down a couple of the people who tried to kill members of my pack wasn't a smart move?!" Jace bit out, turning around fully to face Clary, stepping between the two of them, in front of Maia as though to protect her from Clary.

"I think that you should be taking a little responsibility for this yourself, Mr Big Alpha," Clary snipped at Jace, and when his nose twitched, she knew that he was trying to pick up on any angry chemosignals that would usually be coming off a person. She didn't doubt for a moment that if she didn't have all sorts of spells and wards surrounding her body, she would completely reek of frustration and anger. " _You_  shouldn't allow your pack to be wandering around by themselves when you know that there's a threat in town! You should be keeping a closer eye on your pups!"

"Hey, who the fuck are you—"

"Maia!" Jace cut her off, holding up his hand, obviously seeing the way Clary was gathering herself up, hands clenched at her side, on edge already, and snarky comments from Maia weren't going to help the situation. Maia let out a huff and crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes flashing at Clary. Clary's shoulders were raised and she could feel the temptation for her own eyes to start sparking purple, but she held it back. "I came to you, the other day, and I said that I didn't want to be left out of this. This is my town, my territory and  _my pack_ ," he jabbed his finger in the air. "If you had the opportunity to take any of this group of people out, you should have!"

" _You_  don't tell me what to do!" Clary fired back at Jace, her temper seeming to bubble over. "I was called here because this wasn't something that  _you_  could handle!" Clary could see Jace's eyes beginning to flicker, the pupil beginning to bleed red. "So just because  _you_  can't keep your own pack safe,  _don't_  project that on to me!" She knew when she hit the sore spot, because Jace's eyes suddenly burned a bright, brilliant red.

He felt guilty.

He felt angry that he couldn't protect his pack, that this wasn't something that he could handle on his own.

She would feel back about targeting that sore spot later, but for now, she was angry.

"I _protect them_ ," Jace ground out, and Maia couldn't decide whether she was more angry or worried as she looked between her Alpha and the Spark opposite each other. She stood firm, half of her body hidden behind Jace's back, but her eyes still glowing gold in defiance, in support of Jace. Clary's eyes weren't on her, though, they were completely focused on the golden haired werewolf in front of her.

"Oh yeah? Then why was Maia out by herself in the middle of the night?! Why was she out unprotected?!" Clary snapped. "Where were  _you_  when  _your pack member was cornered_?!"

"That was  _my fault_!" Maia's voice was rising, just like the other two in the room. "Jace explicitly told us not to go out alone, especially at night, and—"

"Oh, okay, so that's just great," Clary's lips quirked in a sarcastic smirk. "Then it appears as though your pack just doesn't have enough respect to follow a few simple orders?" Maia's lip curled upward and she looked as though she was about to leap forward and attack Clary, and the red head was prepared for that to potentially happen, her magic beginning to swell in her blood and travel down her arms, filling her veins.

"This isn't about my leadership!" Jace's voice was trembling with barely controlled rage, and his eyes were still burning red, furious and vibrant. "This is about what  _you're_  doing to help us with this enemy group—the same enemy group that you apparently just let walk away!"

"If Magnus and I had taken out those two, then the rest of them might have disappeared! And then we might have lost them—we might have lost Valen—" Clary caught herself and let out an exasperated sound.

"What?! What were you just about to say?!" Jace demanded. "What do you know that we don't?!"

"There's a lot that I know that you don't," Clary snapped at him. "There's a whole fuck of a lot, and that's why I'm here to help."

"Oh yeah?" Jace sneered. "Well, you don't seem to be doing a great job of that! Just letting them go—"

"Funny, I'm pretty sure little Miss Hair over there—" Clary jabbed her finger at Maia. "—wouldn't be okay if I wasn't around!"

"You little bitch—" Maia made another lunge at Clary, her eyes glowing bright gold with her fangs showing, and despite the terrifying picture that she made, Clary didn't step back, looking as though she was fully prepared to take on the girl if that's what it came to. She managed to whip around in front of her Alpha before Jace grabbed both of her biceps and restrained her.

"We can't keep doing this shit," Clary waved a finger between herself and where Jace and Maia were standing, not looking at all concerned by the snarling woman in front of her. "We need to work together, not  _against_ one another."

"As if we would want to work together with the chick who is apparently letting go the people who were attacking us," Maia snarled. Jace still looked angry, but not as angry as Maia. Clary rolled her eyes.

"Whatever," she muttered. "I'm not in the mood for this. I'm tired, and I'm going back to my shitty little hotel room. Text Lydia when and where you train, and she'll pass it on." She stalked past Maia and Jace, not paying any attention to the way that Maia snarled and snapped her jaw, and Jace flashed his eyes, leaving the apartment without another word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yesterday was World Mental Health Day, or today is that day for a lot of you, the 10th.  
> Please be kind to each other, people have so much going on in their heads that just isn't obvious from the outside.  
> Much love xx


	10. Chapter 10

Jace licked his lips, feeling a little nervous as he looked around his pack. Will, Jem and Max were play fighting with each other, rolling around on the dusty ground, snapping their fangs at each other and then rolling away, laughing. Isabelle was perched on a broken chair, and for some reason she had brought a nail file and nail polish, and she was filing her nails and touching up the purple polish, looking completely uninterested in the proceedings around her. Helen and Alec were talking quietly among themselves, probably the most organized out of his pack and he was glad to have them standing at his side. He was probably most worried about Maia, who was tense and glaring at the three non-pack members who were standing on the other side of the abandoned warehouse, talking quietly among themselves.

Jace wasn't sure what was making him more annoyed; the fact that Clary had pretty much forced herself on them, and he knew that it was because she was going to judge them, or that the three of them—Clary, Simon and Magnus—weren't even paying attention. They were talking quietly, but the werewolves in the room could all still hear what they were saying.

They were talking about some visit to Paris that they all took, and apparently Simon had made a fool of himself over some succubus, and Magnus and Clary had needed to swoop in and save him.

Absolutely  _nothing_ to do with what they were doing here.

It made Jace angry, and his pack slowly picked up on his feelings, and he could feel them tensing and falling quiet, making their way over so that they were all standing around their Alpha. Jace tried to control his anger, not wanting to put off his pack, because they were already going to feel off balance enough with the other three there.

Jace and his pack didn't often train.

They didn't have much reason to.

He didn't leave them defenseless—he taught his pack control, and he taught them how to keep their shift managed, and he always made sure they were together in a full moon. He also taught them how to fight, and every couple of months they would gather in this abandoned warehouse to train, but it wasn't...It wasn't particularly serious. Most of the time, Jem and Max would goof off and not really listen, and Isabelle was usually too careful with her nails to throw her full force into it.

"Alright," Clary lifted her voice and began walking over to the pack. Maia let out a growl under her breath while Alec's eyes were just focused on Magnus, who was walking behind Clary, a playful smirk on the mans face. "So...You guys start whenever, we're just here to observe." She moved over to sit down on the broken chair that Isabelle had vacated and crossed her legs as she watched them expectantly.

Jace wanted to snap his jaw and snarl at Clary, because even though her outward expression was calm and almost pleasant, he knew that she was there to judge his pack.

And they knew that as well.

His pack started strong, Alec and Will.

They were two of the best fighters in his pack, and they were actually serious about it when they set their minds to it. They lunged at each other, claws extended and their mouths twisted into snarls. Blood was drawn quickly and there was the snapping sound of ribs and wrists breaking, and Jace couldn't help but glance toward Clary, Magnus and Simon, to try and figure out what they were thinking. Clary and Magnus' expressions were unreadable, although Simon looked a little sickened, especially when Alec tackled Will, and Will's leg was bent at a weird angle until it healed itself. The two men fought hard with each other, and Jace was proud as he watched them.

"Stop," Clary said, not loudly, but with enough power to make everyone in the room pay attention to her. She stood up and looked at Alec and Will, not sparing a glance toward Jace. "You two know each other too well, you might be inflicting some pain on each other, but you're not throwing your full force into it." She pursed her lips and tilted her head to the side, and for a split second, she looked exactly like the girl who came into Jace's apartment, before he knew who she was. She looked young and petite, and not at all like an all powerful Spark that Lydia and Charlotte were making her out to be. "Fight me," she stated.

"What?" Will snorted.

"Fight me," Clary repeated. Jace's eyebrows pulled together at the statement, and Alec and Will both looked toward their Alpha for guidance. Jace wasn't sure what he was meant to say, because even though he knew that she was a Spark, Alec and Will were still two extremely strong werewolves. They got seriously injure her. "Fucking hell," Clary muttered, and all of a sudden, there was a shock wave that shuddered through the building, emanating from Clary.

It sent everyone in the room flying, except for Magnus and Simon, who seemed prepared for the shock, and Magnus had stepped in front of Simon to protect him.

Before Alec and Will could even get to their feet and react, Clary was attacking them again, her fingers flicking and advancing on them. She was fast, and she was strong. Obviously a lot of that came from her power as a Spark, but she was obviously a skilled fighter, given her quick foot work and the way her arms and hands moved.

Alec was the first one on his feet, and Clary jumped, one of her legs spinning as her whole body turned, and her foot hitting him in the side of the face. Alec's whole body jerked backwards, but he recovered quickly, and started attacking her. Clary met every single one of his punches and kicks and jabs, blocking them, dancing away, making the whole thing look like it was all part of intricate choreography. She ducked when Will came running at her as well, and Jace winced as Will slammed into Alec's torso. They both groaned as they crashed down to the concrete floor.

Alec pulled back and Clary's attention shifted onto him. He backed up, but he wasn't running away, just putting some distance between them. Jace's eyes flickered between the two of them, and he noted the small smile that creased across her face as her eyes followed Alec. Will scrambled to his feet and followed Alec's lead. The two men looked at each other, and it was obvious that Alec had an idea and wanted to communicate with Will. They couldn't verbally do it, though, given Clary was right there, watching them carefully, and Will seemed to get sick of waiting and charged again. Alec let out a huff of annoyance and charged in as well, giving up on whatever plan he had been trying to conjure up.

Clary sent Will flying toward the high windows with a flick of her fingers and then promptly broke Alec's leg by ducking his punches and hooking one of her legs around his, throwing her weight at Alec's torso so that he tumbled over and his weight fell in the opposite direction from the way his leg was facing.

"Who's next?" Clary asked as she turned toward Jace, flicking her hair over her shoulder and lightly bouncing on the balls of her feet. Alec was still groaning at her feet, and Jace's jaw clenched and he wanted to go in and comfort his beta, but he knew that he would be okay. Alec's bones were undoubtedly already stitching themselves back together.

Maia charged in next.

She was quick and a good fighter, and she had a whole lot of anger pent up that made her move faster and stronger. She threw everything she had into the fight, and

Isabelle went in after Clary sent Maia slamming into the concrete wall at the far end that made a loud cracking noise. Isabelle was a lot more calculated than Maia, and it actually seemed as though her and Clary fought very similarly. There were a few snarky remarks exchanged between the girls, and Isabelle lasted almost as long as Alec and Will before Clary sent her soaring toward the ceiling with a burst of magic.

Which, really, didn't seem fair, although he guessed that was the point.

Max, Jem, Aline, Helen...None of them lasted long against Clary.

Jace was fuming, and his whole body was on edge, wanting to jump in and protect his pack. Every now and then, he was getting hit with sparks from Clary, and they were sharp and electric, crawling around underneath his skin, making his heart beat faster and his fingers twitch. He was hit with a feeling that had happened when he had been around her before, like there was something under his skin, just wanting to get out.

"Alright," Clary clapped her hands together and looked around at the pack that she had quick and efficiently disabled. "Jace," she turned to him, crossing her arms over her chest. "Tell me what they did wrong." Simon and Magnus finally seemed to pay attention to the group, Magnus' eyes intense and flickering between his warlock mark—his cat eyes—and Simon crossing his arms over his chest.

Jace could list things, and he did, knowing that his pack would take them on as constructive criticism.

Max and Jem didn't want to hurt anyone, they would never go in for the final blow, they never put their full weight behind any of their punches.

Helen was similar, and she got distracted easily, especially when Aline was nearby.

Aline didn't know how to use her power as a banshee properly. She could sense death and trouble, but she didn't know how to concentrate it when in a fight.

Will didn't think things through before charging, just like Maia, they just kind of did it.

Alec and Isabelle were the strongest fighters, and they were cunning and picked up on weak spots. Both of them needed practice, and they needed to learn to fight with each other, rather than as two separate units, but that also extended to the whole pack. They didn't train together often enough, and when they did, Jace wasn't strict enough with them and he didn't force them to fight together, to learn each others movements.

"Great," Clary shrugged, and she flicked her fingers through her hair and Jace couldn't help but narrow his eyes at her physical appearance right now. Her cheeks were a little flushed, and her hair wasn't as tidy as it had been, but other than that, she still looked completely put together. There was some dust on her leggings, and at some point she had taken off the hoodie she was wearing, but his pack looked a whole lot worse for wear that she did. "So we start tomorrow, yeah?"

"What?" Jace asked, caught off guard by her comment.

"Well, you just said that they needed work, and the reason I'm here is because there's a threat in town," Clary raised an eyebrow. "I mean, other than you, pretty girl—" she threw a smirk in Isabelle's direction, and the dark haired girl grinned back, waggling her fingers in response, obviously something clicking between the pair of them. "And you, Blue Eyes—" she glanced over at Alec, and Jace didn't miss the way that Alec's eyes stayed locked on Magnus. "The rest of you need a  _hell_ of a lot of work." There was a low growl from Maia, and Jace couldn't stop his eyes from flickering red at the disrespectful comment. The rest of his pack didn't look too upset with the remark though, probably because it was  _true_.

"Or we can start later..." Simon stepped forward, nudging Clary with an elbow, as though gently reminding her that she wasn't in charge here.

"Whatever," Clary shrugged off-handedly. "Or later, but if they're not ready, and they get caught out, then that's on you." Magnus blew a kiss at Alec with blue magic twisting in the air before it fizzled out, and Alec's cheeks went red, and the man smirked and turned around, sauntering toward the door. Simon was close behind him, and then with a wave of her fingers, Clary skipped out after then.

Jace hated to admit it, even to himself, but he felt her presence leave them like an itch under his skin.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Thank you for your patience!

Jace needed to get out and run.

It had been almost three weeks since Clary and Simon had come into town, about a week and a half since Clary had saved Maia from the attack of whoever it was who had come into their town. Since then, they had been training together as a pack, every day, every chance that they got. Clary was always there, Simon and Magnus sometimes came, but she was always there. She didn't really say much, sitting in the corner of the old warehouse and watching with her eyes narrowed, taking everything in.

It sometimes threw his pack off, he could feel that coming off them. Especially Maia, because Maia hated that Clary had come to her rescue. She knew that she owed Clary, and that was something else that she hated. The others managed to ignore her most of the time, although Jace could tell that they were curious about her, they wanted to know more.

And it threw him off.

He didn't like to admit it, but she made him feel off-balance, and not right. He felt as though there was something more, sliding around inside of him, flickering in his nerve endings, trying to get out through his fingers and toes. He had never felt like that before, not since becoming an Alpha, when he was young. He had always felt completely confident, completely comfortable in his skin, and intune with his wolf.

So he hated that someone was throwing him off.

He didn't go to the reserve, even though that was the best place for him to run. He didn't go to the edge of town, towards the woods, because he knew that it wasn't safe to be there alone. As much as he didn't want to admit to himself, he had been caught off guard by these intruders in his town before, and he didn't know what he was up against, so he couldn't risk getting caught alone. He also couldn't be too far from his pack, he needed to be close enough that he could get to them as soon as they called, if they ended up in trouble.

So instead, Jace just ran.

He had to force himself to keep at a normal pace, maybe just a little bit faster than an average human. Jace's sneakered feet slapped down on the pavement as he ran down the main street, turning down one of the side roads that lead through the winding back alleys of the township. He passed by a handful of people coming out of a restaurant, there were a couple of drunk men standing outside a bar, smoking cigarettes. There was another late night jogger with a dog, who pulled on it's lead and tried to growl as they passed by Jace.

Jace was just turning to run by a creek that ran alongside town when suddenly, a red head stepped out of the shadows and into his path.

"Fuck!" Jace snapped as he almost tripped over his feet as he skidded to a stop. There was a furious expression on Clary's face and her eyes were sparking purple. He could even pick up on a slight chemosignal coming off her, and it was angry, just like her expression, but it disappeared as quickly as it hit him, replaced only with that sharp, lightning smell that seemed to follow her.

"What are you doing out here?!" Clary asked, her words snipped.

"Running," Jace responded with a frown, glancing around. "What are  _you_  doing out here?"

"The job that you're  _paying me_ to do," Clary stepped closer to him with a glare. "I'm checking the wards that I had put up around the town, seeing if anyone has come in recently that I need to follow up on." Her eyes were still glowing purple as she stepped up, directly in front of him so that they were almost pressed chest to chest, and Jace was hit with a wave of frustration once again that she somehow managed to keep such a tight reign on most of the time. He had never come across anyone before who masked their chemosignals and their scent in the way that Clary did, not even other warlocks and Sparks that he had encountered. "So, what, all this being careful and not going out along shit doesn't apply to you?"

"I could say the same thing about you," Jace retorted.

" _I_  can take care of myself!" Clary growled.

"So can _I_!" Jace retaliated.

"Oh, right," Clary's sneer was utterly sarcastic. "I forgot that last time when both you  _and_  one of your beta's ended up with bloody wounds, that was  _intentional_!" Her voice was rising, and Jace couldn't help but let his own eyes begin to glow, red meeting purple for what felt like the umpteenth time. She frustrated him. She rubbed him up the wrong way—both him and his wolf. He wasn't sure what it was about her, there was just something about her—something that was making his skin itch and his wolf pace impatiently inside him, howling in annoyance at the feeling that there was something  _more_ , something that needed to get out.

" _You_  don't get to tell me what to do, this is  _my_  town—"

"Okay," Clary snapped and held up a hand which made Jace stop speaking, even though he wanted to kick himself after. "I'm not even going to begin to tell you how much that statement compares you to a teenager." Jace opened his mouth to snip at her again, but suddenly Clary reached out and gripped his wrist, her other hand flicking out and rotating in a circle, and a hazy oval appeared in front of them.

"I don't need—" she was a lot stronger than she looked, because she stepped through the portal and gave a strong tug at his wrist, and Jace was caught off balance and he stumbled after her. The next blink of his eyes and they were back in his apartment, on the far side, next to the long windows that looked out over the township. Jace let out a growl, the sharp smell filing his nose, the only real scent that he had ever got from Clary, that charred smell, like lightning. He yanked his hand away from Clary, turning on her with his eyes glowing blood red. "What the fuck?!" He snapped at her.

"You need to keep yourself safe!" Clary sounded exasperated. It sounded as though Jace was definitely getting to her, which he counted as a win, in an immature way that he would never admit out loud to anyone. "You tell your pack to make sure they don't go out alone, and then just a few days later I see you doing exactly that, out here alone."

Jace had to get away from her.

There were all sorts of  _things_  that she made him feel, and he hated it. It felt like his skin was shrinking in, like his bones were going to move, transform, make him into something, like his wolf wasn't enough. It made him restless, uneasy, and it made him want to howl in frustration. He had no idea what it was about Clary that made him feel that way, because the rest of his pack didn't feel that way. They were all fine. They were on edge because of the attacks, and they could pick up on his anxiousness, but none of them felt the same way they did.

He couldn't work it out.

"You know..." Jace took in a deep breath, making sure to purposefully breathe in through his nose deeply, trying  _desperately_  to pick up on any scent from Clary.  _Anything_. Anything to tell him what she was thinking or feeling.

And as usual, there was nothing.

Just the smell of lightning that surrounded her wherever she went.

"You know, you seem to have a real connection with whoever it is that's out there," Jace told her, trying to keep his voice angry and firm. _And even_. "Maia's right, you know a lot more than you're letting on. How do we know that they're not just hanging around here because you're here?"

"You think you'd be able to get rid of them without me?" Clary arched an eyebrow disbelievingly at him, advancing toward Jace and closing the gap that he had managed to put between them.

"I think they would leave if you did," Jace responded. Clary shook her head with a snort, her red curls bouncing around her shoulders. Jace's eyebrows pulled together as his eyes flicked over her face.

"They won't," she told him, her voice almost a hiss.

"How do you know—"

" _They won't_ ," Clary repeated, her green eyes shifting from their glowing jade colour to the deep purple they did when she was calling for the magic inside herself. Or when she was angry. Very similar to a werewolf, Jace noted to himself. But when her eyes glowed, when that magic was starting to swell around her, that was when things got even worse for him.

And it almost felt familiar.

He just couldn't put his finger on it.

"Trust me on this," Clary continued and it annoyed Jace, but he was pretty sure she was right. "I wasn't there the first time they attacked you, so you're in their line of fire just as much as I am." Jace gritted his teeth together as she stabbed her finger at his chest.

It almost  _hurt_  the spark that shot through his body, spreading from that spot in in his chest that she had jabbed. That lightning, that magic that Clary carried around with her, it felt as though it was shooting through his limbs and jolting something inside of him.

It felt like he had touched a live wire and the response was automatic, instantaneous, almost violent.

Jace lurched forward, a hand going to Clary's head and twining themselves in her hair, gripping the strands almost painfully as he jerked her forward. Their lips came together with a clink of teeth and painful smash of their mouths and then the most surprising thing.

A  _scent_.

It was surprise and shock and the tiniest hint of arousal and the _sweetest thing he had ever smelt_.

It was sharp and sugary, and it caught Jace completely by surprise that his mouth faltered, and the kiss broke as Clary's hands came up to his chest and shoved him away. It didn't feel as though she had put her magic into the push, but it still managed to put a few inches between them. Clary's eyes were wide, and they were purple, and he could still smell her scent, whatever she usually used to shield her emotions and her smell completely failing her.

Clary's lips were parted and it looked as though she was going to say something, before she snapped her fingers, that hazy oval appearing again, and she stepped back, into it, disappearing, leaving Jace alone and confused in his apartment.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think :)


End file.
